On Friday, Pakistan’s health department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province reported detecting three cases of the mpox virus. The infection was identified in patients who had arrived from the United Arab Emirates.
The World Health Organization recently declared the new outbreak of mpox, also known as monkeypox, a public health emergency of international concern due to the emergence of a new virus variant.
Previously, Pakistan has seen cases of mpox, but the specific variant in the current patients is not yet clear. According to Salim Khan, the director general of health services for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two of the patients have been confirmed to have mpox, while the third case is pending confirmation from the National Health Institute in Islamabad. All three individuals are currently in quarantine.
In a related development, global health officials have identified a new strain of the mpox virus in Sweden, linking it to an expanding outbreak in Africa. The WHO’s declaration of a global public health emergency came after the virus spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there have been 27,000 cases and over 1,100 deaths, primarily among children, since the outbreak began in January 2023. Mpox can cause a painful rash, fever, and swollen lymph nodes and can be severe for some individuals.
